{CO} Some Official Statements

[NPC]

The Cook-Out had been a success, and they certainly needed more of those. Perhaps enough marks in the success column would start to blot out the mounting failures. Either way, the students had gathered, people had enjoyed the food and one another's company. And now the board had gathered together, getting ready to make the general announcements to the gathered populace. Several older looking men and women in suits had already gathered around the provided podium, chatting with one another and gathering notes and opinions to be delivered. The head of the board, an old alumnus of the school, would be stepping up to deliver the majority of the speech.

First, however, the aide to the board would be stepping forward to check the microphones and do last minute preparations. As soon as he'd finished, he'd begin drawing the attention of those gathered, letting them know that the board would soon be making their speech to the assemblage to kick off the school year. If everyone would just gather in the  general area, that would be greatly appreciated.

And the Head was already standing to the side, smiling and nodding toward the crowd, even giving them a little wave, looking very much like a politician ready to greet his constituency. They would wait for enough people to gather to hear, after all, this was something that people would naturally want to hear.

[Barry Grep]

An Assembly!

YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhh.....

Ok actually Barry wasn't all that super excited. BUT! There was food still there! And where there was food, there was SURE to be a Barry! For the greatest way to lure out the majestic, not to mention totally awesome and amazingly handsome, Barry Grep! Rare was it that this Grade-A creature would leave his secure sanctuary of the nerd. But today was one of those exceptions.

So now Barry had walked up with the rest of the crowd, a plate of maybe three fully loaded burgers on a plate along with at least five balancing hot dogs and a generous slice of pie that he had found and immediately attacked to steal a piece.. How was he managing to keep all of it on one plate while also eating a hotdog with his other hand? Well, Magic. Seriously, it's so simple. What else did you expect from a level 154 wizard? C'mon now.

BUT Barry's attention turn to the podium, kinda curious but also extremely involved with devouring the food in his hand and very soon eating the food on his plate.

[Logan Diacha]

Why was Logan here?

Honestly, she had no idea why she had come out. She had stored enough food in her own room that she wouldn't need to come out and eat at the Cookout despite the cafeteria being purposely closed to force the students to go to the Cookout in the first place. Which had been a good idea, at least to get some of the kids too lazy to just go into town and miss the event all together.

But one way or another, Logan had found herself leaving her room and instead heading out to the Cookout. Not for food or socializing-- because really, why would she care at all about talking to people she didn't care about or who didn't matter to her business? But then again, apparently there was going to be some announcement or something. Still, wasn't like she really cared at all.

But for one reason or another she was there already, so she might as well she what was going to be said. Even if it was a waste of her time.

[Lupe Silvestre]

These stupid humans and their damn rituals.

First they never left her alone, and now they demanded she go to some stupid gathering where a human was announcing something about the Academy or the ritual they called a 'Cook out?'

Bothersome insects. No, worse than insects! At least bugs get squished like they're supposed to and don't bother me nearly as much. She thought bitterly as she stood at the edge of the crowd that had gathered around some large wooden box with some older human adults near by it. Those humans were probably the ones who would be talking, and the reason Lupe had been forced to come here in the first place. She snarled angrily, and snapped her teeth at a human that glanced back at her when she growled. He quickly turned back around and Lupe went back to her glaring.

Just what had the humans wanted her to hear? Why should she care at all? It involved the humans, not her.

[Valerie Law]

So the Cookout had been a little.... nerve-wracking. Valerie hadn't den used to so many people, But Riley had persuaded her to go and had come along with the blonde pixie as well. That had made the girl relax considerably, and actually end up going just to spend some time with her old friend. Riley ended up bringing her girlfriend too, but Riley's presence had put Valerie completely at ease-- and Valerie didn't mind in the slightest. And her girl friend seemed very friendly, and shy too like Valerie usually was. In any case it was nice hanging out with Riley and her girlfriend, and it was almost like old times at Acton Vale. Just hanging out and having fun. Valerie was definitely so much calmer with her best friend at her side, and her stammering had basically vanished along with her nerves.

They had eaten together and played a few of the games before apparently there was some sort of speech going on. Blinking, Valerie followed along with the others as they gathered to listen to the man speak. Valerie was curious about it all. What was the man going to talk about? She eventually turned to Riley and Zoe. "What do you think it's about?" She whispered curiously, glancing back at the man standing. He seemed like an older man. Alumni maybe? Wasn't that usually a thing for these kind of speeches at these kinds of events?

[Riley Forrester]

Once Riley heard about the Cookout, she just knew she had to snag Valerie and get her to come out with her and Zoe. Not only to get Valerie to sort of see the whole school and maybe get a little more used to the people of Bellefonte, but also because she just genuinely missed her friend. They hadn't hung out like they used to in a while, but Riley blamed that partially on how Valerie was still getting a bit used to moving in and everything. They still ran together and studied together for time to time, but they hadn't just chilled out in a while. So Riley set out to remedy that.

And it was fun! Valerie was goofy like she always was when she relaxed around her friends, and she seemed to like Zoe just fine and get along with her. It was always nice to see Valerie relaxed in comparison to her shy self that everyone else usually got to see until they really got to know the blonde and Valerie got completely comfortable around a person. Luckily Zoe got to see that side of her first, although Riley had no doubt that Valerie's usual shyness might surprise her girlfriend if she met the blonde without Riley around. The trio ate a bit, played some games, and then the speech thing was happening and Riley headed over with Valerie and Zoe and everyone else.

Were they alumni? Thats usually the people who do these. Let's hope they don't take forever. Riley thought before listening to Valerie. "Dunno. Guess we'll have to find out now. No way to sneak out." Riley responded with a lopsided grin before turning her attention to the speaker again, holding Zoe's hand and giving it a squeeze now as they listened.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina was annoyed by the entire idea of the cookout, but she also knew that avoiding the whole shenanigan while being on the security squad was probably a bad idea. She actually had to care somewhat about what she did nowadays, and she wasn't sure that was an entirely bad thing. After all, her entire goal had been to stay out of trouble by coming here, to get away from her violent history and start over. Maybe she hadn't been doing as good a job of that as she should, but she was only known as a slut here. The rumors that she was aware of didn't mention much of her rougher side. 

    Selina sighed as she watched the proceedings, bored out of her mind already when she saw someone she recognized. "Logan!" she called out with a friendly wave before approaching the girl, "How have you been?" she asked as she kissed the girl on both cheeks and smirked slightly. It could have been considered innocent, except for Selina's expression. But hey, Logan was cute... in a badass sort of way.

    The girl also appeared to be a challenge in more ways than one, and Selina just couldn't resist. 

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Elsa arrived, feeling decidedly pleased with herself. The event had gone smoothly overall, and she'd certainly enjoyed herself up until this moment. She'd at least had the good sense to get herself cleaned up slightly, with some help, before coming out for the final announcement. The board would be making statements; Elsa already had a good idea of what was going to be said, having been involved in some of the email exchanges and whatnot.

Now Elsa moved to the side of the podium, hovering close. She did spare a few moments to look over the crowd, noticing the people gathered. She could at least readily identify Selina Taylor, and she was almost a little surprised that the girl would be anywhere official. Roxana and Vera no doubt had to be around somewhere, and Elsa hoped they maintained position. If anything happened, it would definitely happen now.

For the moment, Elsa simply held her position, looking as pleasant as possible, waiting patiently and struggling not to look bored.

[Matt Wilson]

Matt had finally finished up at the grill and was currently standing to the side, arms folded and sort of relaxing. He knew this part would be relatively boring and all, but he was also some kind of adult, an adult nursing a decent buzz, but an adult nonetheless. He was far more tempted to shout out something inappropriate, but there were people here who were counting on his at least pretending to behave himself. He could even see a few of his students and he had little doubt that Tamara would be around here somewhere.

But for now, Matt was just sort of hanging, relaxing, watching the kids and realizing that they had to be even more bored with the whole event than he had. At least Matt had managed to suffer through things like this before. Didn't stop him from humming a bit to himself already, bobbing a bit, definitely feeling his buzz. Yep, definitely an adult now. And one that was more than ready to get this thing over with so he could go home and crash on a bed. Because Matt was definitely done with this day, that was for sure.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe had been more or less enjoying herself. Meeting Valerie had certainly been interesting enough: the girl almost reminded Zoe of herself, right down to the nerves and sort of looking a little like Zoe when she'd had her hair short. They'd been doing alright, and now the three of them were all standing to the side. Zoe's focus wasn't really on her girlfriend or the friend right now though: she was fiddling with her camera, knowing that there would be a need for her to take several pictures and so forth.

Zoe did catch Valerie's question, not to mention the response. Definitely no sneaking out, and Zoe felt Riley pulling a hand away to squeeze it. She gave her girlfriend a quick smile before leaning over to address Valerie a little more directly: "It's a welcome message, to let us know that the new school year is starting and so on," Zoe said, nodding. "I, um, I think it's probably also to state that everything's fine after, well, everything that happened last year."

Though Zoe did know that Riley and Valerie had missed most of it. Zoe... hadn't. She flushed just thinking about it, finally getting her camera together. "Riley, I might need that," she said, giving Riley's hand a squeeze and flicking her eyes down to it.

[Kyle Underly]

Oh boy, a boring speech given by old men who should've been put out to pasture several years ago. Clearly Kyle was all kinds of excited to be there. Just practically vibrating with excitement. Still, it was more or less required, and Kyle didn't see any reason not to take advantage of several people being there. Might as well rub elbows and catch some attention and all that good stuff.

And hey, he even recognized a few people. One in particular he'd gotten fairly close to in his relatively short amount of time here. So he slid right in behind Selina, definitely moving into interrupt her friendly little meeting with whoever the other girl happened to be. "Ladies," he said with his most charming smile, looking from one to the other. "Selina, and I don't believe I've met your friend here," he looked the other girl up and down for a few moments. She looked... feisty, he guessed. Or possibly bored. Definitely alternative, and he had to wonder how the hell someone like Selina had met her. He knew she got around but, sheesh.

[Riley Forrester]

Both Valerie and Riley had looked over once Zoe spoke. "Oh! That makes sense. Thanks Zoe." Valerie said with a small smile. Riley was thankful Valerie didn't ask much, since she knew what Zoe was talking about.

"Maybe." Riley said, her expression softening. After the whole SPECTRE thing and the fire and all that, it was probably nice for the school to be able to say nothing had happened this year that was too out of the ordinary. Riley could definitely see how relieving that would be. Probably even more so for the girl she was holding the hand on now.

Speaking of hands, Zoe was asking for her hand back and Riley blinked, glancing down at their hands before back up at Zoe and flashing her a warm smile. "Ah, sorry. Sure thing." She said, giving the hand one last squeeze before letting it go

[Logan Diacha]

Logan was listening before suddenly she heard someone call out her name. Curious as to who would actually want to see her, Logan turned before suddenly someone was kissing both sides of her cheeks. Blinking at the sudden invasion of space, half of Logan was ready to fry whoever it was that did this. Until she saw who it was. Selina.

Smirking slightly, Logan nodded. "Well enough." She stated before suddenly some boy slid up behind Selina and interrupted them. Logan's gaze returned to it's bored, neutral state as she looked over the boy. Apparently he knew Selina, and he had a cocky, arrogant air to him. They were usually the easiest to manipulate. He mentioned not meeting Logan before. "You haven't." she said simply before glancing back at the speaker at the podium.

"They're about to start." Logan stated, making it obvious she wasn't up for any more conversation until the whole speech was over.

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina grinned at Logan's response, "Glad to hear it," she offered, but was slightly confused at her sudden change in expression when she heard an all too familiar voice behind her, "Kyle," she said, her tone more amused and wry than hostile. At Logan's response to him Selina merely nodded. If Logan didn't wish to give out her name or acknowledge Kyle's existence, Selina wasn't going to force it. 

    "You here for PR or because it's practically required?" she asked Kyle, her tone neutral. If he expected her to put on a show here, she didn't mind too greatly much, but still, she would rather remain unnoticeable at this point. Or at least as unnoticeable as she could ever be. Seemed like everyone knew her or knew of her these days.

[Vera M. Solway]

A deep sigh.

That was all Vera could really give to this assembly other than her attention. Though she spent all day watching over the cookout with Devyn and the other Security Squad members, she wasn't tired. Nor was she sleepy, or fed up. She just wanted to know what it was that they'd tell them that they didn't tell them every start of the school year.

That and she really wanted to get out of this uniform.

She could spot more than a few familiar faces as she stood off of the far side of the podium, opposite of Elsa. Those hazel eyes of hers also took a glance at the Bellefonte before her focus went back everyone, while trying to spot her girlfriend. Though, when she spotted Roxana instead, she made her way towards her security partner and stood alongside her. Her arms folded as she spoke low, but enough for Rox to hear. "Is it me or does the Head look extra douche-y today?" Her brows furrowing as she slightly cringed at the sight of him, watching him wave and smile like he was everyone's favorite person.

While she sort of missed the twins being the Heads of the Academy, she figured only someone who enjoyed headaches deserved that position. And there he was. Vera had no real issues with seeing the Head of the Board but she still had that street mentality, displeased at just anyone who were in such a high place.